10/20/99

Editors: A photo of James Fales is available at: http://cscwww.cats.ohiou.edu/news/pix/FALES.JPG

ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University Professor of Industrial Technology James F. Fales has been appointed to the Gerald G. Loehr Professorship. Chosen from the faculty in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology by the dean, each candidate must demonstrate a solid contribution in leadership and scholastics to the university. The Loehr professorship is a five-year appointment which receives a salary supplement and an additional travel budget.

Fales is the director of the Center of Automatic Identification which is devoted to research and education on subjects such as bar coding, magnetic stripe, voice recognition and radio frequency identification.

Fales is a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences and has written articles in journals such as "Industrial Engineering," "Electronic Commerce World," "Automatic ID News," and "ID systems." In 1998, Fales received the Don Percival Award, the industry's highest honor presented annually to a person in the Automatic Identification and Data Capture community. He is one of only 16 people in the world to win this award.

Dean of the Russ College of Engineering and Technology Warren Wray said Fales is highly regarded in the field of automatic identification.

"Fales accomplishments in the area of automated identification techniques have given him and the university recognition throughout the world," he said.

Fales completed a bachelor's degree in engineering at the University of Miami in 1968.

He earned a master's degree in 1972 and a doctorate degree in engineering in 1975 from Texas A&M University.